JOHANNESBURG, NEW YORK, GENEVA, 30 August 2002 - UNICEF today issued
a bold challenge to world leaders attending the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg. Noting that access to clean water can save
the lives of millions of children, UNICEF's Executive Director, Carol
Bellamy, called on leaders to ensure that every school, in every corner
of the world, be equipped with clean water and separate sanitary facilities
for boys and girls over the course of the next decade.

"Achieving truly sustainable development means creating a world
that is fit for children," said Ms. Bellamy, in her plenary address
to the summit. "Something as simple as providing safe water and
clean toilets in schools will not just help protect children from deadly
diseases- it will keep millions of them, especially girls, going to
school. And, making sure children get a quality basic education can
help a single generation make a huge leap."

In her speech Ms. Bellamy said children are every society's most precious
natural resource, and that investing in them is a virtual guarantee
to achieving true sustainable development.

"Investing in children is one of the most farsighted decisions
any leader, government or community can make," said UNICEF's Executive
Director Carol Bellamy. "Investment in a child benefits the child,
the family and the cause of sustainable development. It's not only common
sense but it's based on sound economic sense, too."

Investing in children yields higher economic returns than virtually
any other type of public or private investment. Studies that show an
investment of $1 in comprehensive child development programmes has a
$7 return on future cost savings.

"We all know about the cycle of poverty," said Ms. Bellamy.
"But we also know how to break the cycle. It means investing in
the comprehensive care of children, including health care, clean water,
adequate sanitation, education and protection from abuse. Healthy and
educated children become productive young adults. These young adults
later become healthy, educated parents and a true measure of sustainable
development."
Some 60,000 participants, more than 100 heads of State and Government,
leaders from NGOs and business, and representatives of farmers, indigenous
people, scientific and technological communities, workers as well as
children and young people have gathered at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. They will focus on strategic
actions to preserve the environment and eradicate poverty.
One very clear articulation for the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit
can be stated in terms of its impact on children: that achieving truly
sustainable development means creating a world that is fit for children.
Many of the draft commitments of the Summit grow out of the four pillars
of action for children that came from the first ever UN Special Session
on Children held in May of this year; promoting healthy lives, providing
quality education, protecting children from abuse, exploitation and
violence - and combating HIV/AIDS.

But as the world meets to discuss the critical issues of sustainable
development in South Africa, six neighbouring countries in the region
are reeling from cumulative shocks and crises that have put nearly 13-million
people at immediate risk. More than six million of those at risk are
children, and 2.4 million of them are under the age of 5.

"We must put urgency behind our commitments and action,"
said Ms. Bellamy, having just visited three of the six countries affected.
"While sustainable development and a healthy human environment
will benefit tomorrow's children, we must also stay focused on today's
children as our first priority."